Media reports from Seoul say a Korea National Oil Corp.-led consortium has signed oil contracts with Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government.
The contracts were not verified by the KRG, which typically issues announcements when oil contracts are signed, Ben Lando reports for United Press International.
It has signed more than 20 production-sharing contracts since 2004, despite criticism from the central government in Baghdad, which claims regional and other local governments have no right to sign deals in the oil and gas sector. SK Energy, South Korea’s largest refiner and partner in a 2007 oil exploration and development deal signed between KRG and a KNOC-led consortium, was cut off from oil supplies by Baghdad in retaliation.
Security and Insecurity
The city of Najaf is being transformed from a city of death and cemeteries to a city of visitors and hotels in the wake of more peaceful times, Faris Harram reports for Niqash.
The people of Diyala are expressing fear that their towns will once again fall under the control of al-Qaeda following a government announcement that it plans to withdraw troops by October following the completion of operation Bashaer al-Khair (Promise of Good), Muhammed Abdullah reports for Niqash. Fears have been stoked by the recent explosion of a suicide bomber at an Iftar banquet in the town of Balad Ruz. And on Wednesday an ambush southwest of Diyala killed 35 police officers and Awakening Council members according to the Diyala governate.
The improved freedom and security in Iraq do not extend to the homosexual population, who are subject to a sexual cleansing campaign, evidence shows, UPI reports.
Thousands of chickens were culled in parts of Iraq as a strain of bird flu tears through the country’s poultry industry, officials said Thursday, UPI reports.
Allegations of embezzlement and mismanagement have virtually paralyzed the Iraqi Red Crescent, Iraq’s leading humanitarian group, officials say, UPI reports.
Read what Iraqi’s read: the Iraq Press Roundup by UPI’s Alaa Majeed.
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